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Origin and history

Saint-Alain de Lavaur Cathedral, located in Tarn in Occitanie, is a southern Gothic building built from the 13th to the 16th century. Based on the remains of a Benedictine priory attested in 1098, it replaces a Romanesque church destroyed during the Albigois Crusade in 1211. The reconstruction began around 1255, marking the transition to a Gothic style characterized by a single slender nave (23 m high). The establishment of the Priory in 1317 transformed the church into a cathedral, triggering successive enlargements until the 16th century.

In the 14th century, chapels were built between the foothills, an innovation for Languedoc. Bishop Jean Vigier (1469–97) undertook major work: the elevation of the nave, the addition of a western span, and the construction of a 42 m tower bell tower with an arrow (destructed in 1540). The polygonal bedside and the jube (demoli in the eighteenth century) are added under the episcopate of Simon de Beausoleil (1514–1525). The cathedral, built mainly of brick, incorporates Romanesque elements such as the southern bell tower of the jacquemart, which was installed in 1604 after an initial mechanism dated 1523.

The interior is home to remarkable treasures: a Romanesque marble altar table (circa 1100), carved with motifs similar to that of Saint-Sernin de Toulouse, a Cavaillé-Coll organ (1876) in a polychrome Renaissance buffet (1524), and wall paintings by the Ceroni brothers (XIXth century). Simon de Beausoleil's layman, rediscovered in the 19th century, adorns the southern fire. Ranked a historic monument in 1911, the cathedral underwent a major restoration between 2013 and 2018, after arson in 2019 in a chapel.

The jacquemart, a local symbol, is said to have been born of a legend: a prisoner sentenced to ring the bells would have made an automatic to escape. The cathedral, today parish, remains a place of pilgrimage for the feast of Saint Alain (25 November), whose mysterious origin precedes the Benedictine foundation. Its organ, classified, attracts international concertists, while the garden of the bishopric and the frescoes of the eighteenth century (partly erased) testify to its rich episcopal past.

Architecturally, the cathedral illustrates the transition between southern Romanesque and Gothic, with a devoid nave contrasting with richly vaulted lateral chapels (lieres and thirdons). The stained glass windows, the missing stalls, and the wrought iron lutrin (18th century) complete a classified furniture. The structure and vaults, restored after centuries of humidity, also house a 17th century pieta and paintings of the Ribera school. The site, the most visited of the Tarn after Albi, embodies the religious and artistic history of Occitanie.

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